I have a list I wrote up once about Python's problems. Some of these are more exotic than others. Most of them are kludgearoundable. A couple are fixed in Pytho

I have a list I wrote up once about Python's problems. Some of these are more exotic than others. Most of them are kludgearoundable. A couple are fixed in Python 3. Some are simply design choices that are exactly different from my mental model of the world, and due to the TOOWTDI Python world, it is frustrating to work with them. Some Things Wrong With Python * Immutable strings[0] * Everything a reference[1] * Environment copied on loop entrance (implying assignments often break when done in loops) * Lack of braces[2] * Lack of enums[3] * Standard debugger pdb reminds me of the first debuggers ( used on the PDP-1 and EDSAC) in its feature list. * Exception-oriented design, which clutters code with "try/catches" everywhere. * Exceptions aren't just exceptions, they are also overloaded to provide signals. * Two forms of objects (old style vs. new-style) * Object inheritance is pointer to parent. Metaprogramming becomes an exercise in hackery. * Objects are actually dictionaries with some pointers behind the scenes. * Duck typing will automagically cast certain things[4] * As an interpreted language, code that is not tested can be assumed to be syntactically correct but in error (this is a horrible problem when testing for rare error conditions)[4.5] * When Python is fast, it's because it's calling out to C. * Python objects are gigantic. An empty string is 40 bytes, for example. This adds up. * Python can not meaningfully multithread, due to the global interpreter lock. * Python suffers from many different versions being installed on different versions of Linux[5] * Lambdas are totally broken[6] * Large-scale module importing is a half-baked job[7] * Python 3 routes around some these issues by using generators for everything[8]. [0] Ever try to step through a string and modify it in-memory? Well, you can't. Sorry. ;-) [1] I.e., a function can modify something unexpectedly. [2] Which means block commenting or commenting out tops of loops means a complete reindenting of the block, that is, editors can't do the smart thing, they don't have enough context. This is a waste of the engineer's time. Delimiters were figured out in Lisp, a very long time ago. [3] This was figured out long ago as well. [4] But not others. Object design is a bit funky. [4.5] This is a general design 'con' in dynamic languages. It's partially solvable with a sufficiently smart compiler, most compilers aren't that smart. [5] This is why serious Python programs (that don't come bundled with their own version of Python) are written to target Python 2.4, released in 2004. [6] A 'lambda' function in Python can not have statements. Most interesting functions have statements. [7] Python (similar to Java) relies on a very specific directory structure for a given program to be able to import libraries. This means that if you are doing anything remotely exotic with layouts (e.g., libraries are in a peer directory, not a child directory), you have to commit hackery. [8]This avoids the fact that the end result has to be emitted in some fashion.